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BonziBuddy
BonziBuddy, stylized as BonziBUDDY, is a desktop assistant program distributed by Bonzi Software between 1999 and 2004. The software provides an on-screen software agent designed to help users surf the Internet by using Microsoft Agent technology. In 1999, the software used a green parrot called "Peedy" licensed from Microsoft, and in later versions, a purple gorilla named Bonzi. Upon a user's choice the on-screen agent would share jokes and facts, manage downloading using its download manager, sing songs and other functions. The software uses Microsoft Agent technology similar to Office Assistant, and originally sports Peedy, a green parrot and one of the characters available with Microsoft Agent. Later versions of BonziBuddy feature its own character: Bonzi, the purple gorilla. The program also used a text to speech voice to interact with the user. The voice was called Sydney and taken from an old Lernout & Hauspie Microsoft Speech API 4.0 package. It is often referred to in some software as Adult Male #2. Some versions of the software were described as spyware. Bonzi's homepage remained open after the discontinuation of BonziBuddy and the website disappeared at the end of 2008. Criticism In April 2007, PCWorld readers voted BonziBuddy 6th on a list of "The 20 Most Annoying Tech Products". One reader was quoted as criticizing the program because it "kept popping up and obscuring things you needed to see." One of the last newspapers to write about BonziBuddy while it was still in distribution described it as spyware and a "scourge of the Internet". Another article found in 2006 on the BusinessWeek website described BonziBuddy as "the unbelievably annoying spyware trojan horse". Adware or spyware A number of sources identify BonziBuddy as spyware, a claim the company disputes. In 2002 an article in Consumer Reports Web Watch labelled BonziBuddy as spyware, stating that it contains a backdoor trojan in that it collects information from users. Among the activities the program is said to engage in include constantly resetting the user's web browser homepage to bonzi.com without the user's permission, prompting and tracking various information about the user, and serving advertisements. The Spyware Removal Database at Safer Networking (makers of Spybot – Search & Destroy) states "BonziBuddy is an Internet Explorer toolbar that may change your web browser settings, change your home page, and launch pop-up advertisements while tracking your web browsing habits." Spyware Guide's entry on the program states that it is adware. Anti-virus company Trend Micro classifies the software as spyware and adware. Anti-virus company Symantec classifies BonziBuddy as Adware. Legal Internetnews.com reported the settlement of a class action suit on May 27, 2003. Originally brought against Bonzi Software on December 4, 2002, the suit accused Bonzi of using its banner advertisements to deceptively imitate Windows computer alerts, alerting the user that their IP address is being broadcast. In the settlement, Bonzi agreed to modify their ads so that they looked less like Windows dialog boxes and more like advertisements. On February 18, 2004, the Federal Trade Commission released a statement indicating that Bonzi Software, Inc. was ordered to pay $75,000 in fees, among other aspects, for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 with BonziBuddy.